Sundries & Curiosities for the Adventurous. A Tribal Inquiry.

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in & out of the horizon’s lines

For those who have an intense
urge for Spirit and wisdom,
it sits near them, waiting.
……Patanjali

it is the clarity of nuance that sings, that moves us beyond the spinning orb and sinks us into the delicious silence….we finally belong……enjoy the undertow….

Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it. There are three ways, I think, to understand the purpose of mindfulness practice. The first way is to see how it leads to wisdom. As insight grows, the teachings promise, the habitual tendency of the mind to continue to cling to what is essentially ungraspable diminishes, and suffering lessens. The second way to understand how practice works is that the very practice itself deconditions the mind from its habitual pattern of running from discomfort. Thus one comes to see that the practice itself is an antidote to the usual flurried reaction of the mind to each new moment. The third way is to think of mindfulness practice itself as freedom, rather than leading to freedom. Any moment of clarity undisturbed by the tension of judging or preferring, rejecting or desiring, is a moment of freedom. My father died of multiple myeloma, a cancer that can be treated but not cured. One day, when his illness was quite advanced, his spirits seemed particularly flagging. The day loomed long before us, and I said, “Let’s go to a movie.” He looked at me, seemingly incredulous, and said, “You know, I’m dying!” “Yes, I know, but not today.” We saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. We both loved it. We had dinner at his favorite restaurant. The next day he developed pneumonia and a few weeks later he died……Sylvia Boorstein